While I was writing the post on Mortal Kombat Legacy’s possible bad Japanese, it reminded me of way back in my college years when Disney’s Mulan movie first came out. I was of course incredibly excited and thrilled by the prospect of Disney finally doing a Chinese legend based movie. Like many, I grew up on Disney films, so it was nice finally to be “represented”, so to speak, since out of all the Disney princesses, Mulan would be the one I could most easily identify with. She’s of Chinese descent and is a warrior princess. Definitely.

Sad to say, out of all the Disney movies, Mulan ranks pretty low in my book. I still remember clearly the moment I sat down in the movie theater at the age of 20 to watch it for the first time, filled from head to toe with dread about what I was going to see. I kept telling myself “It’s just a Disney movie. Just accept it as a Disney movie.” The problem was, it was a DISNEY MOVIE.

For the three years before I sat down to watch Mulan in that theater, I had been studying Chinese Mandarin extensively; traveling in Asia through Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Japan, and Hong Kong; watching Kung Fu movies and many historical Chinese films; and reading a variety of in-depth books on Asian history, art, culture, politics, and linguistics. I even read some feminist theory books on the history of Hua Mulan and how her role as a “symbol of feminism” was complicated by the fact that Mulan had to pretend to be a man in order to gain any power. I was in a period of my life when I basically absorbed everything I could about Asia and its people, mainly because from K-12, there had been NOTHING in any of my classes for 13 years of schooling about it (current California social studies curriculum is much better about this). I was seriously making up for lost time.

Just a few months before watching Mulan, I had stood on the Great Wall of China and stared north at the lands from which the “barbarians” attacked, after having read a few scholarly books about the steppe nomads of the region. So as the film began and the antagonist was introduced, my first thought was, “They didn’t use oil to light the fires on the Great Wall…it was animal dung.” And it all went downhill from there.

It wasn’t just little historical inaccuracies that got on my nerves while watching Disney’s Mulan. I hated the way the northern nomadic tribes were portrayed as vicious demonic barbarians. It reeked of racist stereotypical propaganda, the classic one-sided portrayal of history where there is a clear-cut division between the good guys and the bad guys.

Although retellings of a legend have the creative freedom to bestow whatever personality they would like on the main character, the Disney Mulan herself was too much of a “defer to my family” girl for my taste. It’s possible to care about family and to bravely run off into battle in the place of daddy without being a stereotypically subservient Asian daughter chewing her nails off over “family honor”.

And don’t get me started on the martial arts! When they started to break into song and do ugly kung fu, I wanted to gouge my eyes out! Look, I LOVE musicals. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy Disney movies so much. I also grew up on My Fair Lady and Sound of Music. But I just couldn’t stomach it.

To highlight my hypocrisy, of course, I have to mention that I totally loved a lot of other Disney films like The Emperor’s New Groove and simply adored The Little Mermaid as a child. Most recently, I’m totally obsessed with Tangled. I’m sure that there’s a million things about each of my favorite Disney movies that are historically inaccurate or socially stupid, but fortunately and unfortunately, I’m ignorant enough about them to just blissfully enjoy the Disney movie as just a Disney movie. That just wasn’t meant to be with Mulan.

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rbgoaw

Now that you mention it, “Pocahontas” was very similar, in the matter pertaining to historical inaccuracy. The Disney movie had the character, “Pocahontas”, appearing as an early twenties female princess type. This would not be accurate by a long shot since she, “Pocahontas”, was dead by her early twenties. I will not even bother going into the forced romance between Smith and Pocahontas.

But the burning question is: Did this movie, Mulan, make a man out of you..? 😀

Baakus

Just be thankful that they didn’t go with the original direct-to-video idea, which involved a Chinese village girl being “rescued” by a British sailor and being taken away to wonderful London to be (sexually) rescued from her Chineseness.

Mike Vo

I personally didn’t find that Mulan was offensive in any way. It’s just another Disney-adaptation of a mythical story. If you watch ANY of their classics, like Cinderalla, Snow White, Jungle Book, etc… there are conflicts with the original stories all across the board. I’m sure that Mulan did NOT have an Eddie Murphy-esque dragon named “Mushu”. Cinderella originally did NOT even have glass slippers (they’re originally supposed to be made of white squirrel fur), and Pocahontas…let’s not even go there. And even non-Disney biopics of actual people (ie : Ip Man, Bruce Lee, Notorious B.I.G.) contain historically inaccurate elements, for entertainment purposes. When you go to a movie about a legendary character, don’t expect a history lesson. Just think of it as an introduction to him/her and it’s up to you to research the real facts. I own the Mulan DVD and love it. But Mulan 2, on the other hand…BLEEEHHHH! THAT was a crime! And be glad that Mulan’s love interest, Li Shang, wasn’t some blonde white guy from England, cause THAT would have been way too typical of Hollywood. Kudos to Hollywood for keeping the voice talent Asian-American too (George Takei FTW!)!

david0688

“I hated the way the northern nomadic tribes were portrayed as vicious demonic barbarians. It reeked of racist stereotypical propaganda, the classic one-sided portrayal of history where there is a clear-cut division between the good guys and the bad guys.”

But isn’t that how ancient civilizations portray people outside of their borders? I mean, look at the Roman Empire, look at who they portrayed as barbarians. They were constantly fighting nomads in Germania and other parts of Europe. I think it’s just any sedentary civilization that comes into conflict with nomads considers the nomads barbarians for the reason that they weren’t civilized like sedentary people.

Herostratus356

Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow!

Tina Tsai

Not surprised it’s a common portraying of “nomadic” people, but that doesn’t make it okay.

Tina Tsai

I didn’t like Pocahontas either lol Again, too much historical issues I couldn’t get over.

Oh my god, I hate that man-out-of-you song. BAD KUNG FU! Clearly, too bad Naruto wasn’t around back them to show them what it looks like to animate martial arts awesomely…

Tina Tsai

I enjoyed the movie “Hero” with Jet Li because, as my mom told me, I wasn’t “shackled” by history. She said she couldn’t enjoy it AT ALL because it was such a historical inaccuracy, it was propaganda. Since I didn’t have as strong of an intellectual and emotional attachment to it, I was able to just enjoy the story as is (knowing full well it was historically stupid).

The only thing I really found particularly offensive was the portrayal of northern nomadic tribes. If I had been nomadic tribe descent instead of Taiwanese heritage, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be happy with my ancestors being unfairly portrayed as demonic bad guys.

ccaccord07 .

i hate this movie. Nothing stands out. Eddie murphy was funny at times. THe animation was bland. The music was bland. Forgettable

alasia min

yeah but that means that’s it’s more historically accurate to portray them that way. The Hun were seen as Barbarians

Гэрэл Туяана

Yeah. I’m Mongolian. Direct descendant of so called Barbarians. No historical accuracy whatsoever. And for record Mulan didn’t blasted Modun Shaniyu.

Elle Ie

Oh, come now, let’s not look at it this way. I’m a Native American that avidly delves into my history, but Pocahontas gave me no bother. I understand as well that to tell a historically accurate story when it came to it would be beyond scarring in lesson and moral. But, I prefer to think of Disney becoming entertaining to those people by adding the magical or creative freedom upon characters. (Thinking of this of a Samurai Warriors type of thing; where you sacrifice some of these accuracies for the sake of interest. Pretty sure Motochika didn’t have blue and white hair, y’know?).

I like to see the magical effects in Mulan, while also taking in some of the deeper morals that aren’t on the surface. As children, we do not fathom the idea that there is a deeper meaning to ‘Good and Evil’, and that that line isn’t so blurred. We see good as heroes in capes and cloaks, while we think of evil with a frightening disposition that thrives in darkness. Not saying that the opposition was evil historically, but in the movie it was seen as… These are our heroes; and these are our villains. As we grow older, we begin to question motives behind ones’ actions, such do make villains become less villainous. For example, as a child (I saw Naruto in the comments, so I’ll use that), we see something like Naruto and say; “NARUTO IS OUR HERO!” “OROCHIMARU IS THE BAD GUY!” (Potential Spoiler Alert??!) But as we grow older, we realize the entirety of the storyline was a series of taking and using. Everyone had their own goals, majority of which were actually pure, but just corrupted. This is the same. In the movie Mulan, we see Shan Yu and the Hun army as evil, but as we grow older, if we think about it enough, we realize that this story is through the eyes of an empire that are in war with these people. This is like their version of what they see. But in a War, does everyone not see their opposition as evil? Being everyone as their own goal? If this story were told from the POV of the Huns, China and its armies would probably be depicted as the evil ones. It’s the natural way of things. Just think. Both teams are trying to fight one another, of course they look evil or dangerous to them. It’s War, after all.

As for the lessons. I found them to be deeply touching. This woman risked her life selflessly for her father. She literally went out of her comfort zone for the sake of another. And DID IT.
She faced the oppressive views of men presiding over women and took that risk.
Yes, she ran away from home. She defied her family. But I believe that’s an excellent ideal to give to children. Because eventually, they will be put in a position where they have to realize they have to create their own path in life. Some of the greatest things in life were created by going against society, and even laws (AKA, some protests). And nothing would have change had it not been for their mental fortitude and strength.
But aside from that. Let’s not even pay mind to the fact that Mulan was “Only spared because she saved everyone”. She earned the respect of her comrades -as shown as they attempted to stand up to defend her on multiple occasions-, despite her ‘dishonorable actions’, she ventured where no one else would dare to go, and even succeeded her own personal beliefs. She had no confidence; even saying that she saw nothing when she saw herself. And despite that, she blossomed into someone she felt proud of, and because of that confidence and pride, everyone else believed in her as well.
But, that aside. I have to note my FAVORITE scene of the movie. When she comes home with the intention of restoring honor to her family. Brings these gifts and tows her success… And her father casts them aside and tells her that he’s just happy he has her as his daughter. That was absolutely touching to know that despite the way people saw her, or how she even saw herself, that it paled in comparison to her own father’s love for her. Is that not a wonderful message in exchange? That you don’t have to be perfect or super successful to be loved.

Over all, the mixes of morals and just genuine feels in this movie make it quite the wonderful watch. But this just be me looking at it from an author’s perspective.